California - General

On July 2, 2020, the health officer for the County of Santa Clara, California, issued a new health order titled “Establishing Mandatory Risk Reduction Measures Applicable to All Activities and Sectors to Address the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The order goes into effect on July 13, 2020.

On June 30, 2020, the Sacramento City Council enacted the Sacramento Worker Protection, Health, and Safety Act. This ordinance, which becomes operative on July 15 and sunsets on December 31, 2020,1 addresses various workplace concerns in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ordinance has six particul

In the span of just over one week, three local governments in Northern California enacted emergency paid sick leave ordinances. The City of Sacramento enacted its ordinance on June 30, 2020, while the City of Santa Rosa and San Mateo County enacted their laws on July 7. Santa Rosa's

Introduction: Earlier this year, California’s new consumer privacy law (CCPA) went into effect, and strict state enforcement began on July 1. Since its enactment, the CCPA has undergone several amendments because the plain meaning of the law’s text was not clear.

On July 3, 2020, San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) returned unsigned1 File Number 200455, an emergency ordinance that took effect immediately and now requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide written notice when layoffs occur, grants reemployment rights for employees impacted by CO

By: San Francisco Passes Emergency Temporary Back to Work Ordinance On June 23, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an emergency ordinance requiring employers with more than 100 employees who laid off employees due to the COVID-19 pandemic to rehire those employees if it seeks to re-

By: What To Do When an Employee Tests Positive for COVID-19 Since most workplaces began reopening, we have been getting more and more questions from employers about what to do if they have an employee who reports that they have tested positive for COVID-19. Cal-OSHA likely has been getting similar i

On June 23, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the “Back to Work” emergency ordinance. The ordinance requires certain San Francisco employers to offer reemployment to covered employees who were subjected to qualifying layoffs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On June 16, 2020, several employees at a McDonald’s franchise in Oakland, California filed a lawsuit against their employer, in a matter entitled Hernandez v. VES McDonald’s (No. RG20064825, Superior Court of California, County of Alameda). The lawsuit consists of five plaintiffs, three of whom are

On June 19, 2020, the City of Oakland, California, published a notice poster for employers to provide to their employees regarding Oakland’s Emergency Paid Sick Leave Ordinance.

San Diego County employers that scrambled to find thermometers to comply with the county’s prior health order learned on June 16, 2020 that their efforts were not in vain. One week after the county amended its order to omit onsite temperature checks from its employee health screening requirements, i

By: CA Court Addresses Compensability of Commute Time for Service Technicians Carrying Employer Tools and Supplies This week, a California court issued its opinion in Oliver v. Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA, Inc. , holding that service technicians using their personal vehicles to carry suppl

The California Department of Public Health’s newly issued “Guidance for the Use of Face Coverings” replaces a patchwork of county and municipal standards with a statewide standard mandating face coverings in businesses and other public places.

On June 18, 2020, the California Department of Public Health issued a statewide “Guidance for the Use of Face Coverings.” Although the guidance is not an executive order and does not refer to any authorizing legal authority, Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted, “NEW: Californians are now REQUIRED to wear

You might not believe your ears at first, as Bruce Sarchet and Michael Lotito of Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) heap praise on the City of Los Angeles for adopting a worker “right to recall” ordinance. Regular listeners of WPI’s podcasts know that more traditionally its members are expre

As San Diego County, California employers scrambled to find thermometers to comply with the county health order temperature check requirement, the county did an about-face on its employee health screening directives. On June 9, 2020, the County of San Diego amended its Health Order to do away with i

On May 12, 2020, the City of Oakland, California, unanimously passed an emergency paid sick leave ordinance requiring employers to provide up to 80 hours of additional paid sick leave for COVID-19 related issues.

By: San Francisco Updates Its Shelter-In-Place Order to Reopen Certain Businesses On June 1, 2020, the City and County San Francisco updated its shelter-in-place order, which replaces the prior May 17, 2020 extension of the initial shelter-in-place order. The updated order is considered Phase 2A of

The City of Long Beach, California on May 19, 2020 followed in the footsteps of Los Angeles City and County and adopted its own version of the Right of Recall Ordinance (“ Recall Ordinance ”) and Worker Retention Ordinance (“ Retention Ordinance ”).

Although California was one of the first states to legalize medical cannabis, and later recreational cannabis, voters and the courts have long resisted extending protections against discrimination in employment to cannabis users. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, also known as the C